Morris Minor Owners Club

Quick question, Gents.
I've been trying to work out the corect rear lamp set up for my Low Light. Rego Document says first registered December 49 and chassis number is 8416. So, from what I can tell I should have and have picked up some Lucas 471 units. However when I removed the trailer lamp from the one original, (to the car) rear guard. I found that although I have a 2 inch round hole there are no mounting holes for the base.

So, is there a chance my car had the earlier L488 lamps?

Regards
Rod

According to Ray Newells 'Original Morris Minor' the Triangular profile helmet type (l471) stop tail light units were fitted from June 1949 at chassis number rhd 17580 and lhd 7967.

Have you ever sent for a Heritage certificate to see when yours was actually built and if it a CKD?

Although your car was registered in NZ in Dec 49, it would have been crated and shipped from UK some months earlier for assembly by Dominion Motors so it is possible that it had an early pair of wings pre drilled for the L488 lamps or maybe included the lamps as well.
Two books which you may find useful are "The NZ Morris Minor Story" and "Post War Morris 60 Years On"

Contact David Greenslade, president of the Canterbury Minor Club in Christchurch. He has an early 49 lowlight fitted with 488 lights and knows a lot about the early cars imported into NZ.
Good luck.
Bryan

So, from what I can garner from your replies. The chassis number itself is not a definate way of finding the spec of any one vehicle? I like the earlier lamps and would prefer the car to be correct, that said I was quite happy when I thought it should have the later type. It's really the wifes car and I like the idea of a bigger lamp.

Bryan, I was going to contact David through the Canterbury website. Seems he is no longer the president and his Email is no longer listed. Could i ask you to pass on his details, please?

Cheers, Gents
Rod

Redmoggy wrote:
So, is there a chance my car had the earlier L488 lamps?

I'm sure you mean the Lucas 482 lamps

Redmoggy wrote:So, from what I can garner from your replies. The chassis number itself is not a definate way of finding the spec of any one vehicle? I like the earlier lamps and would prefer the car to be correct, that said I was quite happy when I thought it should have the later type. It's really the wifes car and I like the idea of a bigger lamp.

Bryan, I was going to contact David through the Canterbury website. Seems he is no longer the president and his Email is no longer listed. Could i ask you to pass on his details, please?

Cheers, Gents
Rod

Rod

David's email last month was david.greenslade@clear.net.nz

I should have said Lucas 482 - we have some lenses but not complete lamps.

Bryan

I not sure that it is early enough to had 482 lamps fitted, but I guess anything is possible. Thats why I mentioned the 488 units.

Thank you, Bryan I will drop him a line.

Regards
Rod

L482 lamps were only fitted for a short period, replaced by L488 lamps for an even shorter period. L488 lamps were also fitted to the Traveller. I have them on my trailer
I think that the hole for a 488 would be smaller than for a 482 (I have one on my desk)

So from what I can gather there are no definite answers but a lot of theories.
Your next line of enquiry would be to read post War Morris 60 Years On, by Steve McNicol in Australia and contact as many early Series MM owners listed in the book as possible to find out which tail lights they have fitted

Mike, I wander if you would be kind enough to measure the base of that 482 lamp. If it is to big for the hole in my guard I can at least rule it out?

Thank you
Rod

The L482 needs a 2in dia hole in the wing

Thank you, Mike. Appreciated.

Rod

mike.perry wrote:The L482 needs a 2in dia hole in the wing

It actually needs a 2.3 " hole in the wing [frame][/frame]

Or if you work in metric :[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

The outer cone fits behind the hole, the body of the lamp fits through the hole and the chrome ring fits in front of the hole.
The hole for a 488 lamp is approx. 1 5/8 in.
The hole for a 472 lamp I also measured as 2 in

Had a visit on Sunday from a very helpfull gent, David Greenslade. He has writen a book on the 49 model Morries. Going by the information he has gathered it took approx 9 months for the CKD cars to arrive, be assembled and reach the forcourt. Making my car roughly March 49. So, if the L488 lamp requires a 1 5/8 in hole and my one original wing has a 2 in hole it seems I need some L482 lamps (i realise one would be a reflector but safety and all that). That sucks as I guess they are like rocking horse poo!

You may get lucky, there are a few around, meanwhile you could fit a pair of L488s whilst you are looking.
L482s were originally fitted with a red light on the right and a white lens with no light on the left. When the lighting regs changed all Minors had to fit red L482 light units on the left. I have a white lens which had been painted red.

Thats what I have in mind, Mike. How do the 488 lamps mount, are they screwed like the later traveler lamps?

Thanks
Rod

Same as Traveller lights

Rod
Lucas 482 were also fitted to US spec MGTD and repros are available from MG specialists in the US but are not cheap. We have a couple of genuine 482 lenses in the club stocks but they are £25 each.
Bryan

I think that Rod needs two complete 482 units